Spring cleaning

Spring is in the air! Time for a general cleaning.

An IT shop of any significant size will have old technologies. Some folks will call them "legacy applications". Other folks try not to think about them. But a responsible manager will take inventory of the technology in his (or her) shop and winnow out those that are not serving their purpose (or are posing threats).

Here are some ideas for tech to get rid of:

Perl: I have used Perl. When the alternatives were C++ and Java, Perl was great. We could write programs quickly, and they tended to be small and easy to read. (Well, sort of easy to read.)

Actually, Perl programs were often difficult to read. And they still are difficult to read.

With languages such as Python and Ruby, I'm not sure that we need Perl. (Yes, there may be a module or library that works only with Perl. But they are few.)

Recommendation: If you have no compelling reason to stay with Perl, move to Python.

Visual Basic and VB.NET: Visual Basic (the non-.NET version), is old and difficult to support. It will only become older and more difficult to support. It does not fit in with web development -- much less cloud development. VB.NET has always been a second chair to C#.

Recommendation: Migrate from VB.NET to C#. Migrate from Visual Basic to anything (except Perl).

Any version of Windows other than Windows 10: Windows 10 has been with us for years. There is no reason to hold on to Windows 8 or Windows 7 (or Windows Vista).

If you have applications that can run only on Windows 7 or Windows 8, you have an application that will eventually die.

You don't have to move to Windows 10. You can move some applications to Linux, for example. If people are using only web-based applications, you can issue them ChromeBooks or low-end Windows laptops.

Recommendation: Replace older versions of Windows with Windows 10, Linux, or Chrome OS.

CVS and Subversion: Centralized version control systems require administration, which translates into expense. Distributed version control systems often cost less to administer, once you teach people how to use them. (The transition is not always easy, and the conversion costs are not zero, but in the long run the distributed systems will cost you less.)

Recommendation: Move to git.

Everyone has old technology. The wise manager knows about it and decides when to replace it. The foolish manager ignores the old technology, and often replaces it when forced to by external events, and not at a time of his choosing.

Be a wise manager. Take inventory of your technology, assess risk, and build a plan for replacements and upgrades.